Charlie Smith
SPAIN’S centre-right political party, Ciudadanos is in an election crisis as its supporters switch allegiance to the far right Vox party.
Led by Santiago Abascal, Vox, which has pledged to ‘defend’ Spain from immigrants, is predicted to finish third in the country’s fourth general election in as many years.
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The latest polling ahead of next Sunday’s vote suggests that Vox will increase its 24 seats in Spain’s 350-seat parliament to 46, while Albert Rivera’s Ciudadanos will be reduced from 57 to 14.
In the ‘40dB poll’ 14% said they would move from Ciudadanos and vote Vox, while another 17% would move from the conservative PP, led by Pablo Casado, to support Vox.
Vox is set to gain 14% of the overall vote, after the PP in second place (21.2% and 91 seats) and the left wing PSOE first (27.3% and 121 votes).
The PSOE’s predicted victory would still see the party with two less seats than it managed at the last election in April, prompting another headache for its leader Pedro Sanchez.
Spain’s acting prime minister called this snap election after his party failed to win enough support to govern on its own last time around.
After months of talks with Pablo Iglesias’ far left Podemos party broke down, Sanchez was forced to call the snap vote for November 10.
Another parliamentary logjam is expected, as Podemos are set to go from 42 seats to 31 and new party Mas Pais are only expected to gain five seats.
The figures, combined with the number of elected PSOE MPs, would still not be enough to form a majority government.
